


Love and Laughter

by Miya_Morana



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-20
Updated: 2012-07-20
Packaged: 2017-11-10 09:05:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 885
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/464567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miya_Morana/pseuds/Miya_Morana
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Gwen is getting married, Arthur is king, Merlin is embarrassed and Gwaine is amused.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Love and Laughter

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the "wedding - shower" square of my schmoop_bingo card back in 2010.

Gwen looks resplendent as she sits in her room, all the ladies of the kingdom around her. Merlin expected to see more jealousy there, or more haughtiness at least. After all, Gwen used to be a servant girl, and now she was two days away from becoming queen. 

But the ladies seemed to have been wooed by the tale of Gwen and Arthur’s true, forbidden love, and admired the new king’s courage to stand up to tradition for such a noble cause.

Of course there are the few wondering glances to Gwen’s belly, but Merlin knows that his friend is not pregnant, that it’s not the reason Arthur is marrying her.

“Merlin!” Gwen calls when she sees him.

Merlin smiles, walks up to her and bows his head, trying to ignore as the laughter in the room dies and the women start whispering. They’re not as quiet as they think they are, and Merlin feels his ears turn bright red at some of the things he catches.

Women are terrifying, he thinks.

They didn’t use to look at him like that, and sometimes –such as right now– Merlin misses his old, plain servant clothes that made him almost invisible to the court’s eyes. None of these women would have given a second look at Merlin-the-servant-boy, but they can’t seem to stop staring at Merlin-the-wizard, Merlin-the-king’s-advisor.

He guesses in their eyes he’s the best party after the king. And the king is marrying Gwen in two days.

“What are you doing here, Merlin?” Gwen asks, and it’s nice that she still treats him exactly the same way as she used to. “I thought this was a women-only tradition?”

“Arthur asked me to make sure everything was going fine. And I see it is, so I shall leave you to it.”

“No, wait!” says a blond-haired woman, Lady Angharrad he thinks, standing up. “My Lord, would you mind helping us out to explain a few things to our lovely Lady Gwen? Things she’ll be glad to know in two days?”

“What do you want me to do?” Merlin asks, frowning slightly. He knows he’ll say yes. He’s never been able to resist a woman’s pleading eyes.

“Oh, nothing really! Just stand there, and we’ll do all the talking.”

“In this case…” Merlin agrees with a nod. 

The gleam in Lady Angharrad’s eyes as she claps her hands makes him think that maybe he shouldn’t have accepted so quickly.

***

Laughter echoes in the hallway as Merlin gets out of Gwen’s chambers as quickly as he can get away with. He closes the door behind him, cutting off the sounds, and lets the blush he’s been fighting off for the last twenty minutes spread to his face.

Of course that would be the moment Arthur decides to turn up, probably worried that Merlin didn’t come back earlier. Gwaine and Lancelot are with him, the king’s most trusted knights.

“Is Gwen okay? What took you so long?” Arthur asks.

“Gwen’s fine,” Merlin says, but he can’t look Arthur in the eye, not after the married Ladies of the kingdom used Merlin as visual support to explain to Gwen all the different things she can do to please her soon-to-be husband.

Arthur narrows his eyes at him, but then must decide that Merlin wouldn’t leave Gwen alone if she were in trouble, because he rolls his eyes and sighs.

“Alright then. I don’t think I’ll need you for the rest of the day, you can go do whatever it is you usually do in your free time. You too Gwaine. Lancelot, I’d like to go over the security measures for the ceremony again.”

“Yes my king,” Lancelot says, and the two of them walk off.

“How many times have they gone over the security measures?” Merlin asks with a smile.

“Oh, I’d say about twenty times in the last three days?” Gwaine huffs, amused.

The people loves Gwen, the court loves Gwen, there probably won’t be any security issues, but Arthur won’t take any chances. Also, Merlin suspects Arthur is just looking to have something to think about other than the fact that he’s getting married to the woman of his dreams in two days.

Gwaine slides a hand around Merlin’s waist, dragging him back to the present. The sorcerer looks around quickly to make sure the hallway is empty, then puts an arm on the back of Gwaine’s neck, pulls him down into a soft kiss.

“What happened in there?” Gwaine asks when Merlin is a bit more relaxed.

“Women are terrifying, that’s what happened!” Merlin whines, hiding his face against his lover’s chest.

“Tell me something I don’t already know,” Gwaine chuckles.

And Merlin does, as they walk over to the sorcerer’s chambers. Gwaine is laughing most of the time, and it helps Merlin’s embarrassment to turn into amusement.

“I swear, Lady Seli actually _groped_ me,” he says, as Gwaine is closing the chamber’s heavy doors behind them.

“Did you at least learn anything interesting?” Gwaine asks with a cocky grin.

“Mmmh, maybe.”

Merlin quickly puts a soundproofing charm on the room before dragging his knight to the bed. Gwaine proves to be his usual enthusiastic self when it comes to exploring new sexual possibilities. Plus, Merlin can easily get rid of the rope marks around his wrists later.


End file.
